These pictures are from the National Park Service Visitor Center/ Museum in Spalding, Idaho. It is one of three such sites along the Nez Perce trail. The other two are in Big Hole, Montana and Bear Paw, Montana.

Military explorers were sent west as early as 1804 to observe and record everything they found. With each expedition, understanding about the American West became more complete. What they learned profoundly changed the nation.
This exhibit addresses military explorers from Lewis and Clark (1804) to George Custer (1874). It is the result of a partnership between the Kansas State Historical Society, the Virginia and Washington State historical societies, the U. S. Army's Frontier Army Museum at Leavenworth, and the U. S. Army Center of Military History.
- from the Exhibition website

The White Cliffs are a spectacular stretch of the Missouri River in central Montana. The Corps of Discovery traveled through this area in May and June of 1805, and then on their return trip the next year.

The Lolo Trail is an old Indian trail that tribes in Idaho and Eastern Washington would take to the Buffalo hunting grounds in Montana. In September of 1805, the Lewis & Clark traveled this trail. On their return trip in 1806, they also traveled the trail.

In August of 1805, the Lewis & Clark Expedition crossed the Lemhi Pass. When they did, they answered a question that had been lingering for over 300 years. Is there a water route across the continent? Is there a NorthWest passage? Is there a body of water that can shorten the length of time that commerical traffic can go from Europe to Asia?
When Meriwether West reached this beautiful pass, he saw, not the Columbia River as expected, but ranges of ridges extending westward. In the face of disappointment, the character of the Corps of Discovery and their leaders did not quit, but proceeded on into the most difficult section of their journey, the crossing of the Bitteroot Mountains on the Lolo Trail

The Beartooth Highway extends from Red Lodge, Montana to the NorthEast entrance of Yellowstone National Park at Cooke City. It is fabulous trip that can be done in just a few hours, as long as you are in the area.

This is a spot along the Lolo Trail, a trail that the Nez Perce Indian traveled from eastern Washington and Idaho to the Buffalo hunting grounds in Montana. It is suspected that these rock cairns were trail markers of sorts.
The Lewis & Clark Expedition traveled the Lolo Trail in 1805/06. The Lolo Motorway trail marker has this interpretation.
"None of the Lewis and Clark Expedition accounts mentions the presence of rock cairns at this place leading us to believe the route they followed left something of interest. No one has verified what purpose the cairs may have once served. Other mounds of rock can be found elsewhere along the Lolo Trail. Some believe these cairns marked a dividing trail off the main ridge trail. Others say these cairns were a place for early travelers to leave messages for those who would follow. This ara was named Indian Post Office in the early 1900s."

Here are signs that mark the significant stopping points along the Lolo Motorway.
From the Clearwater National Forest brochure, Lewis & Clark On the Lolo Trail http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/clearwater/LewisClark/Assets/lolo_trail_corridor.pdf
Drive with Care!
The Lolo Motorway is narrow, a one-lane road with nothing more than what nature supplies as a surface. Some stretches hold big rocks that can scrape the underside of a low-clearance vehicle. It’s best to drive a tough vehicle with high clearance and good tires. Towing trailers or driving RVs or motor homes on many stretches of the Motorway is not advised. The high elevation route is open and free of snow generally from July through September, sometimes longer. Lightning storms are common in July and August, and snow can come early.

October 13, 2012

Recently I ventured West from my North Carolina home to attend a leadership conference in Jackson, Wyoming. The trip provided me the opportunity to reconnect with some parts of the Lewis & Clark Trail, and with one of the keepers of the story, Joe Mussulman, who was the guiding force behind the extraordinary website, Discovering Lewis & Clark, now under the stewardship of the Lewis & Clark Fort Mandan Foundation.

One of the questions I had for Joe was whether, post-Bicentennial, interest in the stories had waned. He assured me that it had not.

If I had any doubts they were removed as I visited with Ms. Viola Anglin, the proprietor of the Tendoy Store, which is on the valley floor on Idaho side of the Lemhi Pass. Ms. Anglin told me that the US Forest Service had asked to look at her guest registry. They told her that on June 20 of this year, visitors to her store, and presumably to the Lemhi Pass, came from all fifty states. So, I'd say the story has legs. It was just the encouragement I needed to return to the Trail and the Journey of Discovery.

Now that it is 2012, and not 2006, when I last posted on this blog, much has changed in the contemporary context for understanding this story. If we look back at the past six years in the US and World, you'll see a time of transition.

It is a time of global economic and political upheaval. A global recession is stymieing governments world-wide. Global terrorism has not been abated by two extended wars. And increasingly, in my experience, people are more risk averse and skittish about any sort of venture into the unknown. In other words, we are living in a time of unprecedented change.

What is coming next? I don't think anyone can, with any confidence, say with any certainty. The future is unknown. The question that faces us, as it did Lewis & Clark, how do we proceed forward into a unknown future along a path that seems more and more dangerous and risky?

A Beginning

A dozen years ago when I came across an audio recording of Stephen Ambrose's Undaunted Courage, I was captivated by how he integrated his love of American history with the raising of his family. I found in this story of exploration a kernal of insight about the American personality that resonated deeply with me. That insight was the quest for knowledge, for discovery, for venturing into the unknown, or at least what is unknown to you. I found a theme that had been a core value of my own life since a young man. The value of testing one's limits to discover who you are, of turning towards the horizon, and venturing forth to see what one can find. I have lived this way to the degree that I've been able, and my life has been rich and rewarding as a result.

Like the Ambrose family, we took our children out on the Lewis & Clark Trail. To share the story as a family has been a bonding experience for us, and while my interest verges on the obsessive, we still share a joy at having traveled along the trail where Lewis & Clark walked, poled their boats, ate and slept.

Two Interests

When my interest in the story began, I saw two aspects of the story that were worth telling.

One was the leadership story of shared responsibility and collaboration.

As I read Ambrose's account of the story, my conclusion then, and remains still, is that the Lewis & Clark Corps of Discovery was the first 21st Century Leadership Team. I saw things then, in the story, that I found as fundamental values and practices for leadership teams today. The course of a dozen years has only increased my conviction of this.

The second aspect was the spirit of venturing into a world unknown for the purposes of discovery.

In reflecting on this question a while back, I realized that the last national leader who had any sense of the frontier was President Kennedy fifty years ago when he issued the challenge to go to the moon within the decade. And which we did.

A Re-beginning

With this post, I'm returning to my exploration of the Lewis & Clark Expedition. My purpose is two fold.

First to describe the best I can the principles and practices of leadership that we can learn from them.

Second to explore the nature of exploration and the purposes and ethics of discovery as a focal point for people, families, organizations and communities.

I venture into this endeavor with two other purposes.

One is to recognize that what is unknown by one person or group or nation may well be a rich history of knowledge by another. So, to say that Lewis & Clark ventured into the unknown is not a judgment of the people and places along their path, but rather about their own lack of awareness.

Two is that the Lewis & Clark story influences our perception of other stories of discovery and exploration. Ultimately, there is a larger, longer thread of understanding of which Lewis & Clark is just one example. In other words, I'm interested in developing a fresh understanding of the frontier and our exploration of it.

A Starting Point

Over dinner, Joe Mussulman and I discussed many things. Almost in passing he suggested that I relook at President Thomas Jefferson's instructions to Meriwether Lewis. His letter describing the purpose of expedition is a window into the mind of Jefferson about the exploration of the frontier. This is where I'll begin rediscovering the Lewis & Clark Journey of Discovery for 21st Century Leaders.

Bernard DeVoto: The Course of EmpireOne of my favorite books. A well written account of the exploration of the western United States and Canada before Lewis & Clark. This book along with his introduction in his edition of the journals provides an historical context that gives the reader a better sense of what this adventure meant at the time. (*****)

Circle of Impact Resources

Circle of Impact Leadership GuidesThese conversational guides are tools for helping leaders and their teams think and communicate clearly about their work and the challenges of change in the 21st. Century.

Lewis & Clark for the 21st Century blogA decade and a half ago, I became deeply interested in the Lewis & Clark Expedition (1803-1806). I saw in this story leadership lessons that I wanted to share with people, so that they too would travel the trail, and discover this great American story.